It's good news for Shea that he got Thief of Blood so that no one can wreck him with it. It makes me wonder if I should take Spike Cannibal as 99th pick.

Keith's Sire of Stagnation pick is another I wish I had considered earlier. It would have been sweet to grab that and Oblivion Sower in the same round. As it is, Oblivion Sower will almost always target Anthony, since his land count will be highest and I'll likely get the biggest hits off of him.

When you're going to wheel, double Eldrazi are always saucy. With some of the picks in the draft (and some at this point which haven't yet come but I suspect are going to, especially regarding graveyard hate), I want these Eldrazi as some kind of protection, to either pitch to Survival of the Fittest (in the seconds it tends to stick around) or sacrifice to one of my outlets.

I think people have forgotten ramp by this point, so it's time to cherry-pick stuff like Explosive Vegetation. Rashmi, Eternities Crafter goes with the pseudo-cascade part of the deck; it turns out getting spells for free is nice. Tom will clearly kill some people with Hellrider. In theory I like Keith's Hex Parasite, but don't think it's going to be able to keep up with Shea's proliferation.

Anthony's exile wheel is strong. Sphinx of the Steel Wind causes me to consider that Keith is the only one who is really paying attention to things involving color, although my Swords are a slight nod in that direction. After the draft is over, I have some regret that I didn't consider it more.

You can see that we've all developed the idea that our wheels must be thematic. When you're on the wheel is obviously the best time to snag a two-card combo so that no one can undercut you. Otherwise, I love the flavor of taking two cards which are somehow themed together.

Consecrated Sphinx went in Round 3 last time. Someone mentioned that it was still available, and when no one else picked it up, it seemed silly not to.

Shea's response of drafting Storm Seeker is amazing, amusing, and will certainly get me wrecked at some point. In pre-season games, he's already done fifteen-plus damage to me with it on more than one occasion.

Daggers from Shea on stealing away Cauldron of Souls, but I had my chances, so the blame's on me. Once I've drafted the high-power creatures, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds should be able to fuel some real insanity. Yayimaya Elder also being around at this point was a pleasant surprise I couldn't pass up. Tom getting Blind Obedience this late had made me hope that everyone (including me) had thought that Shea was going to draft it early and everyone (except me) had forgotten. Obviously, Tom didn't. When Keith drafted Deflecting Palm, I acknowledged that it will be completely fair if he kills me with my own Boom Tube.

Round 30

Keith's Sen Triplets is really techy. In addition to be able to cast cards from someone's hand, he can shut down other players' (mostly Shea's, I think) ability to do things which might stop him from doing cool stuff. I think Tom said out loud something like "Holy crap, no one's taken Zealous Conscripts."

Biggest groan of the draft came from Keith when I drafted Geth—since that's who he thought he was drafting when he picked up Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet back in Round 8. After the draft, I offered to trade him straight up, and he declined. I thought it was a pretty fair deal, since it's a good trade for both of us, but I couldn't convince him that I didn't have any ulterior motives (which is the truth—I really just wanted him to have a card that he wants). This group thinks (somewhat reasonably, based on the past) that I'm always one step ahead of them—which is generally good for me—but it's not nearly the truth as often as they think it is. Anyway, I get Geth and Keith has declined the trade twice. You all should convince him to take it.

Surrak is probably unnecessary since there aren't that many counterspells running around, but I really love the trample angle—and it's a 6/6 for 5. No one else has horsemanship cards, which makes my team effectively unblockable (although there are some Clones which might upset that).

My picks around the wheel were going to be Rubblehulk and Kessig Wolf Run, because sometimes, you want to kill someone with commander damage. Anthony got one of them ahead of me, which made me a little sad, but I'll deal.

Malignus is an important pick, not just because it's huge, but because its damage can't be prevented. In light of a few of the Fogs and You Did This to Yourself cards running around, it becomes significant.

Round 35

At this point in the draft, we're once again thrumming along pretty quickly, as we're picking up lots of utility cards. I want to double-check, but I think that Shea's Darkness is the earliest-printed nonland card drafted.

Agonizing Demise is pretty scary—but less so for me, since the largest of my creatures save for Malignus are black. After the fact, Keith says that Backlash might have been a cooler pick. I start the cascade of Gearhulks which will continue in Round 37. I still think I got the best one, and I'm not above destroying my own Lord of Extinction in order to gain lots of life.

I take Triumph of the Horde for two reasons. First is to make a fun wheel with Overwhelming Stampede. Second is that Keith had just sworn that he'd draft Leeches in response to the first infect card picked. I doubt I put it into the deck unless I find out that I'm so underpowered that it's an equalizer (subsequent preseason games have not confirmed that it is). Keith's Cataclysmic Gearhulk might render those big graveyard recursions moot, but we'll see. It's a strong card and will force me to think quite differently.

Llawan is a nod to having some color control, since lots of good blue creatures have gotten drafted. I was initially worried about it getting Cloned, but then realized the Clones are all blue. When Keith drafts Gray Merchant of Asphodel, the rest of us wonder why we hadn't. Shea drafting Comeuppance does more than him just having the card available. It makes us know that he has the card available, which might keep us from battling him. I actually think my strategy against his Fogs is to attack into him early. Even if he wrecks me a little bit with them, they'll be out of his hand for later.

Keith asks "What's the one that gets +1/+1 for each Swamp?" and then drafts it and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in the same round. This is the way we do things. Hermit Druid does in this deck kind of what he does in my Karador, Ghost Chieftain deck—thins basic lands out of my deck and slowly puts creatures into the graveyard. The big Living Death / Rise of the Dark Realms plans are going by the wayside based on what other folks have drafted/will draft, so I'm going to have to think a little more conservatively.

Havengul Lich is a great pick for Keith, whose draft has gone significantly better than the first time. The card is going to pay marvelous dividends for him; I can see why he'd want both that and Geth. Tom upped the ante on aggression with Akroma's Memorial, which is a card I wanted but didn't want to spend a draft pick on. Maybe I'll pick up Copy Artifact on the waiver wire.

Coming into the home stretch, we got into filling out the last pieces that we wanted. Agent of Erebos renders some graveyard strategies inert, but the best card taken in this round is clearly Plaxcaster Frogling.

Its first ability is great since it triggers on attacking, not on the creature dealing damage—although that will just tend to go into casting things post-combat instead of keeping up tricks for other players' turns.

Sure, Mana Drain is a good counterspell, but I'm going to occasionally count on it to just accelerate me in the early-game. We'll have to see how the deck plays out. And when you can draft the Battle Goat, you draft the Battle Goat. I don't see any arbitrarily large combos for Keith with Glassdust Hulk, but he can make it rather large and potentially lethal.

I went off-script drafting Exsanguinate, thinking I could use some lifegain. I then realize it's a terrible card to cascade into. It might eat up a spot on my bench the rest of the League, since I don't really want to put it back into the pool. Creakwood Liege was still available and sets up the possible movement to the swarm deck.

Tom's not fooling around with Vicious Shadows; my hand is frequently going to be large enough to get wrecked with just one or two triggers. I doubt it makes his 99 unless he starts feeling like the other decks are outshining his, which I don't see happening.

It looks like we can all do lots of cool stuff. Anthony's Vorinclex is the opposite of cool and might paint an even larger target on him than Storm Cauldron. I drafted Jalira to turn small, utility creatures into larger ones. Later, when putting together the deck, I discover that most of the creatures I would want are legendary. She'll probably be dropped during the Amonkhet entry draft.

I take Hellkite Tyrant for some laughs because of Keith's deck. I think about not playing it because he generally can sacrifice them and won't have all that many at once.

Much later, I realized how many other good artifacts are floating around that I would have liked to draft. Keith finally makes good on his promise to draft Leeches after Shea takes an infect card (two, actually) that doesn't just kill everyone.

We finished the draft just over three hours after we started (with a few 10-15 minute breaks in the middle). Everyone seemed pretty happy with what and how they drafted. I'm sure we'll have all picks that didn't turn out how we wanted them to, but that's what the waiver wire is for.

The decks look reasonably balanced without any one of them being the obvious threat. Anthony's is the obvious outlier, so we'll see how his plays with the others. It can definitely kill people, but I wonder to what extent he doesn't just get orc-piled because he's comparatively defenseless. It will be fun to see how they all play and the decks develop. You'll definitely be hearing more about our adventures.

Our normal Deck Without Comment and Idiotic Combo features will return next week.

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About Sheldon Menery

Magic Judge Hall of Famer Sheldon Menery is one of the most influential judges in the history of the game and pioneered Commander. He lives in Lakeland, Florida with his wife, where he's pursuing a Master's Degree in English Literature, and has an RPG that's being going since 1987.